Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dean Whitlock, of Thetford, a freelance writer who has been researching the issues surrounding marijuana legalization for years. A former supporter of legalization, he is now opposed. He is a member of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM-VT).
[A] modern range war is being waged in Colorado right now, with the final showdown scheduled for Election Day in November. The issue this time isn’t grazing rights. Instead, it’s marijuana rights, and the core of the issue is local control.
Given that a committee of Vermont legislators is currently holding another series of hearings about recreational marijuana, every selectboard and planning commission in Vermont should be watching with interest.
When Colorado voters passed Amendment 64 in 2012, legalizing recreational marijuana, they included a clause that allowed local communities to opt out and not permit recreational marijuana dispensaries in their borders. A whopping 70 percent of Colorado’s counties opted out.
Pueblo County, on the other hand, opted in. Sort of.
In Pueblo City, Amendment 64 passed by a wide margin, but outside the city limits it failed by about 51 percent. The city population is larger than the county’s rural population, so the Pueblo County commissioners decided they didn’t need a separate vote on opting in. They appointed a marijuana control board, which began issuing licenses for recreational marijuana dispensaries.
Ironically, the Pueblo City Council voted in 2015 not to allow the licensing of recreational dispensaries until the question could be put before its voters. The result? All of the recreational dispensaries (and growing and processing facilities, over 40 in all) are outside the city limits, in the parts of the county where Amendment 64 didn’t pass.
Legalization of anything is not a simple matter in our complex society, even here in our small rural state.
This spring, citing an increase in public health problems, youth use, and crime, an influx of poor and homeless people, and abuse of water rights, a group of activists put forth a ballot measure that would allow Pueblo County voters to opt out of retail sales. The county commissioners and the marijuana industry put up a fierce opposition, including a legal challenge that went to the Colorado Supreme Court, but the measure is on the ballot. At the same time, there will be an opt-out ballot vote for residents of Pueblo City, beside an opposing ballot measure that would allow up to eight recreational dispensaries there.
What does this Wild West feud have to do with Vermont? The legalization bill voted down in our last legislative session would have allowed recreational marijuana stores in any of our towns. Realizing that local control is an important issue to Vermonters (think: school districts, taxes), the legislators added provisions that would allow towns to regulate marijuana business by ordinances and land-use bylaws and also to opt out.
Opting out – called “banning” in the Senate bill – could be achieved through a vote of those present at a regular or special town meeting. That sounds reasonable, although it does allow the possibility of a very contentious argument being decided by just one vote. And it’s not permanent: another vote the following year could reverse it. The vote also would not apply to any marijuana businesses that were already licensed in the town.
It’s easy to imagine the legal battles this could cause, with local opt-out proponents pointing to the law that allows a vote, while local marijuana entrepreneurs waive town plans and zoning bylaws that they say support business development like theirs.
So let me ask: Would you want a marijuana store in your town? How about a marijuana farm or processing plant? How quickly could you gather signatures for a special town meeting to vote on opting out – or in? Does your town plan have language that supports opting out? Does your zoning bylaw have regulations specifying where such businesses could be located? How quickly could you amend them? Does your town have the resources to enforce local and state regulations on marijuana use and sales?
Legalization of anything is not a simple matter in our complex society, even here in our small rural state. When that something is an addictive and intoxicating drug, it becomes even more complicated. Luckily, we have the ongoing Colorado show to give us some ideas of what not to do. It would be a very good idea to let it play out for a few more seasons before we try to write our own script.
